Psalms and the City: John Halgrin of Abbeville and the Paris Context of a Scholastic Psalms Commentary

Though they were at the core of monastic prayer and a staple of contemplative practice, the Psalms also lent themselves extraordinarily well to addressing the dangers and temptations of the active life. In this short essay I would like to explore scholastic exegesis of the Psalms as a means of addressing social and moral issues in the context of Paris in the early 1200s. The real-life context of medieval scholastic commentaries on the Psalms is something of which few modern scholars make note, and one might argue that these commentaries are not even scholastic, as they lack significant rational organisation (commentaries are, naturally, constrained to the order of the text they comment). Still, the phrase scholastic Psalms commentary is not an oxymoron. These commentaries were generated in the cathedral schools, embedded in their urban context, and as the Parisian schools developed into the University, traditional commentaries on the Psalms changed as they continued to reflect the real-life environment and the immediate concerns of their scholarly authors and audiences. The range of emotions and human experience that fill the Psalms provided opportunity to connect to the spiritual lives of clerics in training as well as the urban laity; the immediacy and intimacy with which the Psalms text is applied can provide us with a vivid portrait of a commentary\u27s moment in time, its sense of place

New strategies for HIV surveillance in resource-constrained settings: an overview.

Additional funding recently became available to help resource-constrained countries scale up their HIV treatment and prevention activities. This increased funding is accompanied by an increased demand for accountability from stakeholders. Many countries will need to make substantial improvements in their current HIV surveillance methods to monitor the collective national impact of these treatment and prevention initiatives. However, whereas most resource-constrained countries have monitored the prevalence of HIV, they have collected little information on other events in the HIV disease process, such as HIV incidence, rate of HIV drug resistance, number of deaths due to AIDS and only modest emphasis has been placed on AIDS reporting in generalized epidemics, resulting in severe underreporting. In addition, data on mortality trends are often not gathered. Furthermore, less than half of the countries with low-level/concentrated epidemics have tailored their surveillance systems to the local epidemic, behavioral surveillance is often not present, an integrated analysis of data is not widespread, and data are rarely used to inform policy. In January 2004, a conference was convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to examine new strategies for surveillance in resource-constrained countries, and their use in monitoring and evaluating HIV activities. This supplement summarizes the newest approaches and lessons learned for HIV/AIDS surveillance, based on presentations and discussions from that conference. This article provides an overview of HIV/AIDS surveillance in resource-constrained settings and discusses the history, current approaches, and future directions for HIV/AIDS surveillance in generalized and low-level/concentrated epidemics

Use of routine health information systems to monitor disruptions of coverage of maternal, newborn, and child health services during COVID-19: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique global health challenge which disrupted essential health services (EHS). Most early data related to EHS during the COVID-19 pandemic came from country and regional "pulse" surveys conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEEF), which relied on respondent perceptions and not necessarily routine health information system (RHIS) data. By conducting a scoping review, we aimed to describe the use of RHIS data for monitoring changes in EHS coverage for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We performed a scoping review using Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type (SPIDER) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses - Scoping Review (PRISMA-SCR) guidelines. We included descriptive or analytic reports on the availability and use of RHIS data published in peer-reviewed, pre-publication, or gray literature on MNCH essential health services coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following databases were searched for studies published between January 2020 and May 2022: PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, Google, MedRXiv (pre-publication), Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane, Campbell, and OpenGrey. A single reviewer screened the titles, abstracts, and full texts of the retrieved publications, while a second reviewer screened 20% of the total sample. Publications were tabulated by WHO Region, World Bank income group, country, data sources, study topic, and period. We used content analysis to qualitatively describe the trends and use of data for policy or programming in the studies. RESULTS: We included 264 publications after the full-text review. The publications came from 81 countries, covering all WHO regions and World Bank income groups. The most common data sources were hospital information systems (27%) and primary health care management information systems (26%). Most studies examined data trends before COVID-19 compared to periods during COVID-19. Most publications reported a decrease in MNCH services (45%). Reports with follow-up beyond August 2020 (first six months of pandemic) were significantly more likely to report recovery of service coverage (8% vs 30%, P < 0.001). Low- and middle-income countries reported significantly higher morbidity and/or mortality in COVID-19 periods than high-income countries (54% vs 30%, P < 0.001). Less than 10% of reports described RHIS data quality specifically during the COVID-19 period and only 22% reported program mitigation strategies to address reductions noted from routine data. CONCLUSION: Results suggest awareness and usefulness of RHIS to monitor MNCH service disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with only 22% of reports including descriptions of policy or program adaptations, use of RHIS data to monitor MNCH service disruptions was not necessarily followed by data-informed policies or program adaptations. RHIS data on MNCH services should be strengthened to enable its use by program managers and policymakers to respond to direct and indirect effects of future public health emergencies. REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework (available at: https://osf.io/usqp3/?view_only=94731785fcba4377adfa1bdf5754998d)

Healthy, Happy Families Express

These eight handouts are designed to help parents learn positive parenting skills that promote healthy eating habits in children between 2 and 12 years of age. Each handout focuses on a specific topic identified as relevant through surveys of educators in federally funded nutrition education programs. The content of the handouts is based on empirical research that shows the following: • Parents control and shape the environment in which their children develop. • Parent-child interactions, including those around food, are most effective when done with warmth and sensitivity. • Parents who have more positive parenting skills are more likely to have positive interactions with their children around food. • Parents need to begin shaping healthy eating habits early. Children’s eating habits begin forming as early as 3 years of age. • Promoting positive parenting is beneficial to all parent-child interactions, including feeding. • Positive parenting is associated with better dietary behaviors of children. Can be used with the rest of the Healthy Happy Families curricula

Healthcare seeking for diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia among children in four poor rural districts in Sierra Leone in the context of free health care: results of a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: To plan for a community case management (CCM) program after the implementation of the Free Health Care Initiative (FHCI), we assessed health care seeking for children with diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia in 4 poor rural districts in Sierra Leone. METHODS: In July 2010 we undertook a cross-sectional household cluster survey and qualitative research. Caregivers of children under five years of age were interviewed about healthcare seeking. We evaluated the association of various factors with not seeking health care by obtaining adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence limits using a multivariable logistic regression model. Focus groups and in-depth interviews of young mothers, fathers and older caregivers in 12 villages explored household recognition and response to child morbidity. RESULTS: The response rate was 93% (n=5951). Over 85% of children were brought for care for all conditions. However, 10.8% of those with diarrhoea, 36.5% of those with presumed pneumonia and 41.0% of those with fever did not receive recommended treatment. In the multivariable models, use of traditional treatments was significantly associated with not seeking outside care for all three conditions. Qualitative data showed that traditional treatments were used due to preferences for locally available treatments and barriers to facility care that remain even after FHCI. CONCLUSION: We found high healthcare seeking rates soon after the FHCI; however, many children do not receive recommended treatment, and some are given traditional treatment instead of seeking outside care. Facility care needs to be improved and the CCM program should target those few children still not accessing care

Autonomous Surface Site Establishment to Ensure Safe Crew Arrival and Operations

Traditional human Mars missions have relied on crew to support the surface systems. However, for safety, the surface systems will likely need to be setup and capable of operating prior to the arrival of crew. To mitigate risks to the crew, a novel surface architecture has been developed that addresses risks associated with other Mars missions. This architecture relies on a reusable descent and ascent vehicle, extensive in-situ resource utilization, redundant habitation systems, and emerging autonomous capabilities. The resulting surface architecture increases safety for the crew while also providing potential to expand to support longer missions with larger populations in the future

Regular measurement is essential but insufficient to improve quality of healthcare.

Ambrose Agweyu and colleagues argue that large scale improvements in quality of healthcare require strong change management as well as health information systems that can provide continuous and rapid feedbac

Infectious diseases in a Nicaraguan refugee camp in Costa Rica

Artículo científico -- Universidad de Costa Rica. Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud, 1989Some Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica are in refugee camps. The types and rates of infectious diseases in the Pueblo Nuevo refugee camp were measured by examining medical records for 1985 and performing stool and blood testing. The incidence of infections was 320 episodes per 1000 persons per year. Respiratory infections represented 63% of all illnesses and pulmonary tuberculosis was high. Malaria was not found in blood samples and no childhood illnesses preventable by immunizations were recorded in the records. intestinal parasites were found in 565 of the persons examined, considerably higher than the 153/4 prevalence noted in surveys of Costa Rica as a whole. Trichuris trichlura was found in 40 To of the positive stool samples. The deficient hygienic conditions and overcrowding in the camp are responsible for the high rates of infections and the continued presence of infections many of which probably were acquired in Nicaragua. Improvement of hygienic conditions can be accomplished by involving the refugees in education, cleaning and identifying problem areas. Adequate sanitation and improved water supply, and reducing overcrowding are also recommended.Universidad de Costa Rica. Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud.Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. New YorkUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud (INISA